THE MAKING OF 
AN AMERICAN 
SCHOOLTEACHER 




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The Making 

of an 

American School -Teacher 



By 

FORREST CRISSEY 

Author of "A Country Boy," "Tattlings of 
Retired Politician," etc. 



C. M. BARNES COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



LIBRARY ©f CONGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

NOV 14 1906 

Copyright Entry 

CUSS CC XXc.No, 

/ 6 n 7 

COPY B. 




Copyright 1906, by 
CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Copyright 1906, by 
C M. BARNES COMPANY 






PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 



A few words only are needed to introduce this 
little book. If it has any quality of helpfulness, 
it will speak for itself better than any preface 
could do. 

It was first published serially in the Saturday 
Evening Post and merits, it is believed, a more 
permanent form, especially as it touches upon 
problems of Public School Administration that 
are of universal concern. 

It will interest some readers to know, others 
will readily recognize the fact that this book is 
the life-story of Mr. E. G. Cooley, head of the 
Public School System of Chicago and one of the 
foremost educators of America. He has under 
his charge 259 schools, 5,800 teachers and 280,000 
pupils — truly a great responsibility. Mr. Cooley 
has had a rare career — a career still unfinished, 
but rich in suggestion to all who have a care for 
the processes by which a real education is de- 
veloped. 



THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN 
SCHOOL-TEACHER 



HOW THE PRAIRIE BOY CAME OUT OF THE 
TALL GRASS. 

At the start the School-Teacher was simply the 
Prairie Boy. His forebears were fighters and 
trail-breakers of the staunchest Puritan stock. 
The old Massachusetts Reports say that thirty- 
three of them fought in the Revolutionary War. 
Springfield, Massachusetts, was the original set- 
tlement from which they sent out generation after 
generation to the wide fields of the adventurous 
West. 

Abner, the great-grandfather of the Prairie 
Boy, started westward in 1806, and was one of 
the founders of the first settlement in Western 
New York. The grandfather, named Elias, was 
an Abolitionist of the extremest type. He had 
a large family of boys, and five of them started 
westward before they were twenty-one years of 
age. The one who was destined to become the 
father of our School-Teacher spent his youth in 



THE MAKING OF AN 

New York State working in a sawmill — a busi- 
ness which his father had followed before him. 
He walked across the State of Ohio and did not 
make a permanent stop until he reached Straw- 
berry Point, in Eastern Iowa. Here he put up a 
little one-room shack of the flimsiest sort and se- 
cured a patch of land on the Maquoketa River 
for the site of his mill. It did not seem to occur 
to him that a change to a new country might 
call for a change of occupation. His first big 
task was the building of a brush-dam across the 
river to furnish the mill with water-power. The 
story of this sawmill enterprise sharply illustrates 
the bulldog tenacity of purpose that characterized 
both the father and the son. 

The first spring freshet after the sawmill had 
been put up swept away the dam as if it were a 
mere brush-heap. Three times the dam was re- 
placed, and the sawmill enterprise was only 
abandoned when its owner's Abolition blood be- 
came stirred by the appeals for recruits which 
swept the country at the outbreak of the War. 

One night, in 1863, the father returned home 
from the village late and with a face of unusual 
seriousness. 

" Well, I've enlisted," was his terse announce- 
ment. 

The mother cried with abandon for the greater 

6 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

part of the night. But, after that, she faced the 
situation bravely and without complaint. Every 
article of property that could be spared was sold 
at once, and before the soldier marched away 
with his company, he saw his little family moved 
into a small house in the village. 

At this time it began to dawn upon the Prairie 
Boy that his mother had but one thought and 
purpose in her life and that the way to spell it 
was S-C-H-O-O-L. However, he is now keenly 
awake to the fact that she had many other cares 
and interests beyond keeping him in school and 
that she was a woman of the true pioneer type, 
possessed of uncommon abilities. The soldier re- 
ceived in " county scrip " one hundred dollars of 
bounty money, which was promptly discounted at 
one-half its face value for cash. Although the 
volunteer received only thirteen dollars a month, 
he managed to send home ten dollars of this 
amount — and sometimes all of it — every thirty 
days. 

When he returned, after the close of the War, 
his thrifty wife presented him with a house and 
lot in the village and three hundred dollars in 
cash. It is true that, after the soldier became a 
lieutenant, his wages were slightly increased, but 
the industry and good management of the mother 
were responsible for the fact that she was able 



THE MAKING OF AN 

to take good care of her little family and also put 
by something for the future. As the Prairie Boy 
was only five years of age when they moved in- 
to the village, he was, of course, unable to be of 
any practical help about the house. There was, 
however, one thing which he could do, and that 
was to hold the candle in the woodshed, evenings, 
while his mother sawed the wood for her fire. 
Even then, this rough and awkward toil gave to 
his mother a touch of heroism in the eyes of the 
little candle-bearer. The second day after they 
came into the village, the Prairie Boy was sent 
to the town school. Every small happening of 
that day was photographed upon his mind and is 
often recalled by him now. The village school 
did not have a summer term, and quite naturally 
the Prairie Boy looked forward to the summer as 
a time of play and vacation. He was doomed to 
disappointment, however, for at once, after the 
close of the village school, he was sent out to the 
nearest country school where the " summer 
term" was in progress — and he was kept there, 
too, until the close of the term. 

The Prairie Boy was only six or seven years 
of age when he began his career as an earner. 
His first employment was that of dropping corn 
for a farmer who lived close to the edge of the 
village. Soon he learned how to handle a hoe 

8 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

and later to husk corn. All his earnings were 
turned into the family fund. The day when he 
was given a large, red penny " for his own " 
stands out in his memory with sharp distinctness. 
With splendid recklessness, he spent it for a stick 
of striped candy. 

When at last the father returned from the War 
he became an insurance agent and did a thriving 
business, keeping a horse and riding the country 
for miles about. His new vocation brought him 
in contact with nearly all the men of the coun- 
ty, and as a result he was elected supervisor and 
given other proofs of his neighbors' regard for 
him as one of the " bright " men of the com- 
munity. Altogether, affairs in the home of the 
Prairie Boy had never seemed so promising as 
in those first years following the War. 

No occurrence in all his boyhood was more 
painful to the boy than an incident in this period 
One evening, at the close of family worship, after 
the father had arisen from his knees, he slipped 
an arm around the shoulder of the boy and 
slowly said to him : " Ed, something happened 
down at the post-office this evening that gave me 
a great deal of gratification. One of our leading 
citizens said to me that he regarded you as one 
of the best little boys in this town." 

Instantly the cheeks of the Prairie Boy flushed 



THE MAKING OF AN 

red as a maple-leaf after a frost, and the fires of 
shame seemed to burn him from head to foot. 
If his father had said that the leading citizen 
had denounced him as a scamp and a rascal, the 
shame that would have followed could not have 
equaled that which he felt on being called " one 
of the best little boys in town." 

Up to this time, the only book in the house, 
besides the Bible, was a bound volume of 
Godey's Lady's Book — a popular magazine of 
that period. One day something happened which 
proved of far-reaching importance in the life of 
the Prairie Boy; the township Library Associa- 
tion disbanded, and the books were distributed 
among those who had helped start and support 
it. The insurance agent's share in this distribu- 
tion was a volume of Rollin's Ancient History, 
beginning with the successors of Alexander the 
Great. By daylight and candlelight the boy fol- 
lowed the fortunes of the successors of Alexander 
with all the intensity that the lad of to-day feels 
in the heroes of Henty's pages. 

Here were fighters and philosophers who 
breathed greatness and who lived in an atmos- 
phere of fierce and exalted heroism. Of all the 
great figures which stalked through the pages of 
Rollin, Eumenes was easily first in the affections 
of the Prairie Boy. The unflinching loyalty of 

10 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

this great leader to his ideals, his superiors and 
his associates caught the impressionable imag- 
ination of the lad, stirred his blood and soaked 
into the fibre of his being. With an intensity 
of interest hardly comprehensible to the school- 
boy of to-day, the Prairie Boy reveled in the 
sieges of Athens and of Rhodes; the exploits of 
the Achean League; the hand-to-hand combat be- 
tween the Roman Legion and the Macedonian 
Phalanx; the dramatic story of the siege of Syra- 
cuse, with the genius of the great mathematician, 
Archimedes, pitted against the whole Roman 
army; and the tragic romance of Antony and 
Cleopatra. 

The father was so proud of the lad's achieve- 
ment as a " solid reader " that he mentioned it at 
the post-office. 

Like the other post-office gossip, it soon be- 
came public property and circulated throughout 
the entire community. A somewhat well-read 
farmer, by the name of Jacques, was among those 
who heard of the boy's scholarly acquirements. 
The next day he appeared at the office of the in- 
surance agent with a copy of Josephus in his 
hand. 

" That," he remarked, " is for your boy. If he 
likes Rollin, he will surely like Josephus. Tell 
him it is a present from a man who likes to run 

ii 



THE MAKING OF AN 

across a boy who has a natural taste for good 
reading." 

After he had devoured Josephus and reread his 
favorite portions of Rollin, his historic thirst was 
still unsatisfied, and he borrov/ed a copy of Plu- 
tarch's Lives from the son of the local Baptist 
minister. Here was another feast as much to 
his relish as those which had preceded it. 

But his reputation, at the age of eleven, of be- 
ing " the greatest reader in Strawberry Point " 
brought other grist to his mill. The next offer- 
ing was from an eccentric uncle and was in the 
shape of a huge sheep-bound volume of Shake- 
speare's Complete Plays. His bent for history 
guided him to Julius Caesar and the other great 
historical dramas. Here was history " in the do- 
ing," not in the recounting — history with the life- 
blood of action. 

A thin, limp copy of Walter Scott's poems also 
came into his hands about this time and charmed 
him with its romance and vivid descriptions. His 
taste for poetry was awakened by Scott, and his 
eye fell covetously upon a paper covered copy 
of Milton, in the window of a general store. Two 
years passed, however, before he had fifty cents 
he could spare for the purchase of this volume. 
But its reading repaid him for the months of en- 
vious waiting. 

12 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

From Scott's poems to his novels was a natural 
step, and these were about the first books of 
fiction which the Prairie Boy read. The reading 
of these great romances was distributed over 
some four years, from the time he was thirteen 
until he was seventeen. He read them in his 
attic room, out under the trees, and wherever he 
went. 

When the Prairie Boy reached the age of fif- 
teeen years the son of the Baptist minister per- 
suaded him that he should make any sacrifice 
necessary in order to attend the State University 
at Iowa City, to which place the minister was 
going to educate his lad. This argument was 
particularly effective when accompanied by the 
suggestion that the best scholar and the greatest 
reader in Strawberry Point certainly ought not 
to shop short of a college education. 

For several years the vacations of the Prairie 
Boy had been put in at hard work, the results of 
which had been carefully saved. First he worked 
on the railroad, then being built through Straw- 
berry Point, as water-boy, and later as the driver 
of a scraper. Also he had contrived to pick up 
odd jobs, and in the autumn had found profitable 
employment in the harvest-fields. His thrift and 
activity resulted in an accumulation of two hun- 

13 



THE MAKING OF AN 

dred dollars in cash, which he was at liberty to 
spend for an education if he so desired. 

As the delights of knowledge were spread out 
before him by the preacher's son, a bargain was 
soon struck with the minister himself, whereby 
the Prairie Boy was to be boarded throughout his 
University course for $2,50 a week, and was to 
have free passage in a buckboard, drawn by a 
pair of mustangs, over the one hundred and 
twenty-five miles of dirt roads between Straw- 
berry Point and Iowa City. Two days were re- 
quired to make this trip, and it was the boy's 
first venture out into the world. 

The University and preparatory school had 
been in session for five weeks when the two boys 
entered. The Prairie Boy had just begun the 
study of algebra, had never looked into physics, 
chemistry or science of any kind, and had never 
seen a man or woman who knew Latin or Greek. 
It was, therefore, arranged that he should have 
a chance to do extra work to " catch up " in the 
preparatory school. He was innocent of geom- 
etry, and University algebra was decidedly be- 
yond him. In spite of all these handicaps, how- 
ever, the end of the first year gave him a record 
of 100 in Latin, and he was even with his class 
in the other studies. 

He did not then understand just how he was 

14 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

able to accomplish this feat, which astonished 
both his teachers and his fellow-students; but in 
after years he realized that it was largely because 
he had become used to digesting the strong meat 
of solid reading, and because of the intensity with 
which he concentrated all his energies upon the 
thing in hand. Having read only solid books — 
most of them great books — his reading sense had 
not been pampered and weakened by feeding on 
stuff " written down " to the childish level. 

He had escaped the mushy baby-foods of the 
modern "juveniles" — a few flakes of history 
sweetened with the syrup of fable or folk-lore— 
and had cut his intellectual teeth upon the bone 
and sinew of real literature. His capacity to get 
interested in books which held and captivated 
men of intellect and culture had never been un- 
dermined by a diet of " reading made easy," and 
he had no shrinking from the mental effort re- 
quired in the mastication of literature made for 
men. 

Whatever the Prairie Boy read he gave him- 
self to it with a whole-hearted intensity which, 
for the time being, shut out all else and made the 
thing described by the writer so distinct that he 
could " see it." But he was not in any sense a 
bookworm or a recluse. His physical strength 
and energy, as well as his necessities, forbade 

i5 



THE MAKING OF AN 

this. Soon after his arrival, he started out to ex- 
plore the town. One morning, while scouting 
about on the edge of the village, he discovered 
a pile of cordwood two hundred feet long. In 
less than an hour from the time he had encoun- 
tered it, he had made a contract with the owner 
to saw the wood into stove length, at $1.25 a 
cord. 

Thereafter every morning and evening saw him 
doing an hour's stunt with the bucksaw which 
he borrowed. Somehow he did not miss the 
gymnasium or the ball team so long as the wood- 
pile held out. And his engagement with the buck- 
saw, his lessons and his incidental reading took 
the edge off* his energies and he had little appe- 
tite for hazing or " scrapes " of any sort. 

When the spring term came to an end, and he 
took passage for home, he was bubbling with 
enthusiasm for a college education. He had 
tasted first blood and thirsted for more. Almost 
he admitted to himself the possibility of finally 
going to one of the great Universities in the 
East. 

Urged on by the incentive of providing himself 
with the sinews of war for a full college course, 
he lost no time in hustling for work and quickly 
" hired out " as a farm-hand at twenty dollars a 
month. He continued at this until the coming of 

16 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

harvest. Crops that year were heavy and the call 
for harvesters was uncommonly keen. Farmers 
freely offered two dollars a day, and the Prairie 
Boy was not long in arriving at the conclusion 
that it was harvest-time for him, as well as for 
the farmers, and that he must make the most of 
his opportunity. After the crops of the farmer 
for whom he worked had been harvested, he said 
to his working-mate: 

" Chris, you and I can earn more than the rest 
of these fellows; but we'll never get more if we 
don't ask for it. You have a horse and buggy 
and we can go through the county and get three 
dollars a day where the common drifters get two 
and two-and-a-half." 

" All right ; we try it," responded the good- 
natured German, and they soon struck out 
through the country. 

Before evening of the first day out, they came 
to a big farm with sweeping fields of prime grain 
ripe for cutting. 

" Yes," said the farmer, " I need you, and I'll 
pay three a day — but you'll have to earn it, you 
bet!" 

They were out at sunrise and bending to their 
task in the wake of the old-fashioned reaper. 
The field was smooth and level, the horses strong 
and brisk walkers, and the machine new and in 

*7 



THE MAKING OF AN 

perfect trim. Every condition was right for set- 
ting the binders a pace — and the ethics of the 
harvest-field forbade them to fall behind in the 
race. 

As noontime approached, the windrow of grain 
that fell from the clicking sickle of the reaper 
seemed to writhe and squirm before the eyes of 
the Prairie Boy; the landscape grew dim and 
blurred, and each time he bent to his bundle the 
thought came to him : " I'll topple over this time, 
sure; I can't straighten up — not once more! " 

When one hundred and ninety acres of small 
grains on the Davis farm had been harvested and 
the farmer handed out sixty-three dollars to the 
Prairie Boy, the lad felt richer than the owner 
of the crops and the land — for he had saved 
nine-three dollars from the season's work. By 
the time he reached home, however, he had fig- 
ured out his financial situation and faced the fact 
that, considering the clothes he must buy, he was 
far short of enough. 

In a discussion of the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee at the supper-table, the evening of his ar- 
rival home, the father suggested : 

" Why don't you stand the examination, get a 
certificate and then go after the trustees of Dis- 
trict Number Ten? " 

He took the examination and secured the cer- 

18 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

tificate and the school. There was nothing, how- 
ever, in this first attempt at school-teaching to 
indicate that the Prairie Boy would one day be 
recognized as one of our leading educators. 

When he returned to Iowa City, at the opening 
of the spring term, the familiar buildings of the 
University looked marvelously good to him; he 
was no longer a "greenhorn," but a returning 
student who had established himself with a circle 
of teachers and students. As he had missed two 
terms, he promptly arranged that he might make 
up lost ground. 

At the close of the spring term he went back 
to Strawberry Point and to the hay and harvest 
fields, where he made the best wages going — . 
but not quite so much as he had made the pre- 
vious summer. His educational ardor was still 
uncooled and the fall found him once more " at 
the seat of learning," but this time in the Uni- 
versity proper. 

As the term advanced, he began to grow more 
interested in the social side of school-life; to 
awaken to the fact that there were girls in the 
world and that it was pleasant to associate with 
them. Then he was beset by secret doubts of 
the practical value of a college education. 

The coming of the Christmas vacation found 
him in a mood approaching home-sickness and he 

19 



THE MAKING OF AN 

yielded to the impulse to " go back and see the 
home folks." He packed his belongings and sur- 
prised his mother by appearing unannounced at 
the family table. But a still greater surprise was 
in store for the good woman whose secret dreams 
for the future of the Prairie Boy had exceeded his 
own. With his usual abruptness, he announced 
that he was not going back to college. 

It was not so easy as he had expected to find 
a good position, and his hunt for employment 
ended in his apprenticing himself to the local 
wagon-maker for five dollars a month and board. 

One day the young partner in the business 
called to the Prairie Boy: 

" Ed, there's the Methodist preacher's girl over 
there on the corner. Ain't she a clipper? The 
last Conference sent the old man back here. I'm 
going to keep company with that girl." 

" Yes," quietly answered the Prairie Boy, going 
back to his bench. But, as his jack-plane purred 
along the edge of the oak board in the vise, he 
said: 

" I'll see if you do ! I always did like that girl." 

After the shop was closed that evening, he 
bought a new necktie and a fresh box of paper 
collars and " took a scrub." Then he attended the 
Methodist sociable, paid his best attentions to 

20 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

the preacher's daughter, and had the satisfaction 
of being accepted as her escort home. 

Five dollars a month spending-money might 
have sufficed a youth of retiring habits in sleepy 
old Strawberry Point, but this limitation soon 
began to pinch the lively Prairie Boy, especially 
as he felt if necessary to meet the social pace 
which he knew his rival for the favor of the 
preacher's girl was ready to set. He was deter- 
mined not to lose the advantage he had gained 
at the start of the race through any failure to 
make the contest interesting, and this meant more 
money. For him to think was to act, and he at 
once put the case before his father, who had gone 
into the prosperous business of selling sewing- 
machines and organs. 

" You've got the makings of a good business- 
getter in you, and I'll give you twenty dollars a 
month and find you," said the father. 

The offer was instantly accepted. The Prairie 
Boy did not realize then that this simple step 
from the wagon-shop to the sewing-machine 
wagon meant his matriculation in the College of 
Hustle. For the next three years he constantly 
whetted his wits by contact with the hard trading 
instincts of the farmers and villagers. 

When once he had won the girl, he had deter- 
mined upon an immediate marriage " without any 

21 



THE MAKING OF AN 

waits or frills," and to this end he started again 
for the preacher's home. 

In the little town he traded one sewing-machine 
for a cook-stove, another for a dining-table and 
a scanty outfit of furniture, and, partially on the 
strength of these negotiations, secured the con- 
sent of the preacher's daughter to an immediate 
marriage. Their wedding journey was made 
from Asbury Church, where the girl then lived, 
to Dubuque, in a lumber-wagon loaded with their 
household goods. From Dubuque they went by 
rail to Strawberry Point. 

Shortly after he had assumed the responsibili- 
ties of a family, a thunderbolt of disaster struck 
his little home. A certain clause of the contracts 
upon which his father and himself had sold hun- 
dreds of sewing-machines was attacked in the 
courts, and the case appealed to the Supreme 
court. That it could be adversely decided had 
hardly been considered by the agent, so sure was 
he of his cause. But the highest tribunal ruled 
against him, and this decision involved a judg- 
ment which stripped the father of all his savings 
and swept the son out of the best job he had ever 
held. The young man at once fell back upon his 
bucksaw and began to " cultivate the backache " 
at a dollar and a quarter a cord, while looking 
for better work. Soon he was given his old place 

22 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

in the wagon-shop, making wheels at $3.50 a 
set — wheels which are in use to-day ! 

In the fall he took a leave of absence from the 
shop because he could earn more in the harvest- 
fields. Here he met an old farmer, out on the 
Hard Pan, who said: 

" We want you to teach our school. The big 
boys have turned out two or three teachers, but 
I don't think they'll be able to ride your neck." 

The Prairie Boy took the school — and a skir- 
mish and a pitched battle settled the question of 
his supremacy. 

The following summer the creamery movement 
reached the dairy country of Iowa, and the base- 
ment of an old tavern in Strawberry Point was 
converted into a butter factory. Here the Prairie 
Boy found employment at seven dollars a week, 
because of his ability to do the hard physical 
work involved in handling four thousand pounds 
of milk a day by main strength. The owner of 
the creamery was a school-trustee, and, when the 
teacher of the grammar-grade left, he said to the 
buttermaker : 

" We've come to the conclusion that a young 
man of your muscle ard grit is needed to handle 
the boys in the grammar-room. They're a lively 
crew, but you can manage them — and the salary 
is thirty dollars a month." 

23 



THE MAKING OF AN 

The man of the milk-cans replied that he was 
too hot-tempered to make a good school-teacher; 
but this excuse only seemed to increase the eager- 
ness of the trustees, and he finally yielded to their 
wishes. 

In the course of his first year in the village 
school, an incident occurred which proved the 
turning-point of his life and resulted in the re- 
covery of his lost educational impulse. One day 
the school was visited by the County Superin- 
tendent of Schools, William Ewart, a cousin of 
William Ewart Gladstone, the great English 
statesman, who was then at the height of his 
career. The superintendent's call in the grammar- 
room was short and his comments few. At the 
close of school, that day, the young teacher asked 
the principal: 

" What did the old man have to say about 
things in my room? " 

" Well," responded the principal, " he said you 
were a rough specimen of a schoolmaster, but, if 
you knew how much native ability you had, you'd 
wake up and begin to dig." 

This comment gave the teacher of the grammar 
department a jolt which si ook his mental founda- 
tion. " A rough specimen of £ school-teacher ! * * * 
Wake up and begin to dig ! " These words stayed 
with him day and night until he was thoroughly 

24 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

aroused. Out of his broodings came a purpose, 
and finally he wrote to the superintendent a 
letter which was to do for him more than he 
dreamed. 

Then he said to his young wife : " We're going 
to have a house—- a home of our own ; and I'm go- 
ing to build it with my own hands, too." 



25 



THE MAKING OF AN 



II. 

A NEW GRIP ON A LOST AMBITION. 

The young teacher now begain to look at life 
from a new viewpoint. He was awakened to the 
recovery of a lost ambition, to a soberer sense of 
responsibility to others and to himself, to a 
broader, surer grasp of the value and the duty of 
doing a man's work in the world. 

He wrote to the County Superintendent for a 
list of books which would be helpful to a young 
teacher who had made up his mind to try to make 
something of himself. The answer to this request 
was kindly and stimulating, and the list of books 
recommended was solid and well chosen, includ- 
ing such volumes as David A. Wells' Natural 
Philosophy and Green's Shorter English History. 

Part and parcel of this new impulse to build 
broader his mental structure was the determina- 
tion to build a house of his own. He had saved 
sixty-five dollars from his earnings and his wife 
had come into possession of one hundred and 
fifty through her family. These sums were suffi- 
cient to make the initial payment on a village lot 

26 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

and to buy the stone for the foundation of the 
house, the lumber being bought on credit. 

In those days " sun-up " was the signal for the 
School-Teacher to leave his bed and hurry to the 
site of his future home, where first he dug the 
foundation ditches and then tended mason while 
the underpinning was being laid. Union hours 
were not then known in Strawberry Point. Get- 
ting out the foundation-beams according to the 
crude working-plans he had drawn was a simple 
matter, but, when he came to cutting joist and 
rafter, he confessed himself " stumped." Quickly 
he called to his aid the friendly village carpenter, 
who sawed him a pattern of each of these timbers. 
Vacation was at hand and he hired as a helper, 
at fifty cents a day, one of his schoolboys. 

When the house was barely " sheeted up " and 
only one room in a half -habitable state, the family 
partially moved in — the cooking being done on a 
rough " arch " of field-stone out of doors, while the 
baby and the two-year-old were swung in home- 
made hammocks. Even the hardships, obstacles 
and calamities of that season of house-building 
seemed only to add to the joy of the task. When 
a stray dog snatched the family beefsteak from 
the skillet, the School-Teacher and his plucky 
wife laughed over their loss, and when his mis- 
takes as a builder drove him to a seat on the fence 

27 



THE MAKING OF AN 

to "study the thing out," he felt a glow of un- 
familiar happiness. 

His hardest problem was the building of the 
cornice, and in this he made so many mistakes 
that, when he reached the rear of the house, his 
finishing lumber was exhausted. Again he con- 
sulted his carpenter friend, who said: 

"Just put on a dutchman and let it go — it's at 
the back, anyway." 

" The dutchman," or patch, was put on, and it 
has ever since stood in the School-Teacher's eyes 
as the most individual touch about the house of 
his own building. 

The unfinished attic was dedicated to his per- 
sonal use as a den in which to continue the other 
and longer task of building upon which he had 
entered. A tacit understanding was established 
that, once in his retreat, he was not to be dis- 
turbed. This practice of having some room in 
which he was safe from intrusion became a fam- 
ily institution and guaranteed him a sustained 
pitch of application to study otherwise impossible. 
However, he could not shut out himself, and at 
times the spring smells, the shout of happy 
youngsters and the varied calls of the great out- 
of-doors world were irresistible; his books were 
dropped, and he fled the house, taking the short- 
est cut to the pasture-lot where he knew the 

28 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

boys were playing baseball. And what a wel- 
come they always gave him ! This struggle with 
the impulse to get with the boys in the sports of 
the open field was one of the hardest of his life. 
At last, however, he learned how to hold steady 
and say no to himself. 

Every month he added to his library of solid 
books, particularly in the line of science, and, in 
the long night hours, almost literally ate out the 
heart of every one of them. His associates in 
the school noted the change in him, and particu- 
larly the principal saw that his growth was like 
that of the corn in the rich gumbo soil of the Iowa 
prairies. One day, in the School-Teacher's fourth 
year in the grammar-room, the principal said to 
him: 

" Ed, I'm going to resign for a place in Dakota. 
You're an abler man than I am and I'm going to 
do all I can to get you elected principal." And 
although this unexpected promotion was given 
him, it was offered with the understanding that 
he might not be called upon to do more than 
"finish out the term." 

" They've cut the cloth rather wide for me," he 
told his wife, " and expect me to teach half a 
dozen classes, including rhetoric, physiology, 
solid geometry and natural philosophy in which 

29 



THE MAKING OF AN 

I've never had a day's schooling — but I'm going 
to tackle it, just the same ! " 

He taught these branches and kept a close eye 
upon the elementary-rooms, and still found time 
in which to play a little ball with the boys. At 
the end of the term he was re-elected principal 
and his salary was raised to sixty-five dollars a 
month. 

The next summer brought him in contact with 
a new American institution, the " county insti- 
tute." Here he touched shoulders with men from 
the outside world of scholarship, men who were 
forces in the educational world. One institute 
conductor was the superintendent of the Cresco 
Schools, another was a Princeton man named 
Webb, who took long walks with him and talked 
of Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer and Mill, and lent 
our teacher the famous old series of " red backs " 
edited by Doctor Youmans. Here was new meat 
for his midnight feast, and for months he reveled 
in Spencer's Study of Sociology, TyndalPs Forms 
of Water, and Huxley's Man's Place in Nature. 
Best of all, as they strolled under the stars, those 
nights of the county institute session, the Prince- 
ton man gave the " rough specimen of a school- 
master " a fine sympathy and a gospel of encour- 
agement that carried far into the years to come. 

30 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

" I didn't have as good a chance as you have," 
the School-Teacher was told. 

His new stock of books kept the School- 
Teacher digging for two years and his study of 
Mill converted him to the doctrine of free trade — 
and he did not hesitate openly to defend his 
change of faith. Finally, in 1884, he bolted the 
Republican ticket and flaunted his Democratic 
colors in the face of the community, who re- 
garded this defection as " rank heresy." Al- 
though re-elected to the principalship, the feeling 
which his political " brashness " had stirred up 
in the minds of the trustees resulted in his being 
shut out of the board meetings and by being gen- 
erally snubbed by these local dignitaries. But 
he had the boys with him as a solid support and 
his usefulness was unimpaired. 

When the " fair-week " vacation came in Sep- 
tember he decided to pay a visit to his institute 
friend, Professor Weld, at Cresco, who was recog- 
nized as the ablest of the local educators in that 
part of the State. On the train he met several 
other teachers, who said " So you're after the 
Cresco place, too?" His protests that he did not 
understand their question were answered by an 
incredulous laugh. 

But a still greater surprise was awaiting for 

3i 



THE MAKING OF AN 

him when the kindly old scholar at the head of 
the Cresco schools confided to him: 

" I'm going to leave here at once for a better 
position, and there is not a teacher of my ac- 
quaintance I'd rather leave in my old place than 
yourself." 

" That's out of the question, sir," responded 
the School-Teacher. " I'm not equal to it. You 
know I've never had but one term in college, and 
I'm a * rough specimen of a school-master ' at 
best. No; I can't even consider being a candi- 
date for the place." 

" Come downtown with me, anyway," said the 
Cresco principal. " There's going to toe a board 
meeting." 

Outside the board-rooms a man suddenly 
grasped the hand of the School-Teacher with a 
grip that told of comradeship. The look of sur- 
prise on the face of the local principal was met 
with the explanation from his townsman : 

" We've met at more ball-games and free-trade 
discussions, Mr. Weld, than you ever attended. 
When it comes to baseball and Democratic mass 
meetings we're the champion pair of fans in 
Iowa." 

The School-Teacher waited in the drug-store 
for the board meeting to close, but he had little 
more than settled himself when he was summoned 

32 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

to appear before the board, where he was in- 
formed that he had been elected principal to fill 
the vacancy, at a salary of one thousand dollars 
a year. Only after being urged by the fellow 
baseball fan and by the retiring principal did he 
consent to accept, on condition that he could 
secure a release from the board at his home 
school. 

That night he caught a wild freight back to 
Strawberry Point, and next day placed the situa- 
tion before the astonished school trustees of that 
place. As most of them had made no secret of 
their hostility to him, on account of his change of 
political beliefs, they were not in position to re- 
fuse his request for a release, and this was 
granted. 

It was a strange situation which the school- 
master faced, the following Monday morning, 
when he sat at the principal's desk and looked at 
the blackboard on which was written the list of 
studies that had been personally taught by his 
predecessor. Of the eight classes in the list, five 
were studies in which he had never heard a 
recitation as a pupil! These unfamiliar studies 
were astronomy, zoology, chemistry, physiology 
and physics. 

Although recognizing the crisis which con- 
fronted him, he did not for a moment entertain 

33 



THE MAKING OF AN 

the idea of showing the white feather by shifting 
these recitations upon his assistant. What should 
he do ? He must think and act at once ! Quietly 
he borrowed from pupils the text-books of those 
studies and left the room. Hurrying to the 
" office " in the basement, he spent the two hours 
and a half before the first of his recitations in de- 
vouring the day's lesson in each of these books. 
Then he called the first class — in astronomy — and 
heard the recitation in a manner which evidently 
aroused no suspicion as to his unfamiliarity with 
the study on the part of the pupils. Then the 
next class came forward, and the same tactics 
carried him safely through the ordeal. 

After school he bought the entire set of text- 
books and shut himself up in his room in the 
hotel. There he wrestled with them until about 
two in the morning, when things began to swim 
before his eyes. But he must still have hours 
more of study before he could feel safe for the 
ordeal of the morrow. Knowing that nothing 
would brush the cobwebs out of his eyes like a 
walk in the open air, he went down to the street 
and began his exercise. The only public place 
in the town which showed a light at that hour 
was the station. Naturally he gravitated there 
and formed an offhand acquaintance with the 
night operator, who entertained him for a half- 

34 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

hour with tales of the humors of life as seen by 
the man at the telegraph key. Then, rested and 
alert, the School-Teacher returned to his books 
again and wrestled with them until four o'clock 
in the morning. With occasional variations, this 
program was repeated night after night by the 
School-Teacher until his first year at Cresco was 
finished — and even after that. 

Chemistry was the hardest of the new studies 
he was obliged to master. It was suggested by 
the students that the former principal had enter- 
tained the class with experiments. 

"All right," responded the School-Teacher. 
" We'll also have a few explosions." 

After school that day he bought a few chem- 
icals, retreated to the basement of the school and 
started in to work out some of the simplest ex- 
periments he could find in the book. When he 
emerged from the experience he had verified his 
own words — a fact to which his singed eyebrows 
bore eloquent testimony. In order to illustrate 
certain planetary movements, in the astronomy 
class, he made from barrel-hoops a rude "ap- 
paratus " which served as an admirable object- 
lesson and delighted the pupils. 

His only relief from the high pressure of his 
hand-to-mouth mastery of six sciences was found 
on the ball-ground. Here he established himself 

35 



THE MAKING OF AN 

as a comrade with the boys and they became his 
loyal supporters from the start. 

After three months, at the end of the " unex- 
pired term," he was re-elected for three years at 
a substantial increase of salary. This was a sur- 
prise to him, for the struggle had been so close 
that he had felt no certainty as to the final result. 
His fear had been so acute that he had never 
been able to bring himself to return to Strawberry 
Point for even a Sunday. And the loyal wife 
had told him : " Forget that you have a family 
until you can get to where the fight is a little 
easier." 

While the fight was the hottest, however, he 
struck a snag which cost him an immense amount 
of labor, but brought out the dominant note of 
his character as nothing else had done. Con- 
cluding that the text-book of geometry used in 
the school was behind the times, he sent for 
Chauvenet's treatise and began to master it. Early 
in this work he found a problem which he could 
not solve. Night after night he struggled with it 
and still it evaded him ; but the longer he worked 
the more determined was he to solve it single- 
handed and alone. For three months he kept 
steadily at it. Later he learned that it should 
have been solved by analytics and should not 
have appeared where it was placed. He also dug 

36 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

deep into Bledsoe's Philosophy of Mathematics 
and the best books on trigonometry. 

In his last year at Strawberry Point and his 
first year at Cresco, Herbert Spencer became his 
guiding star. But when a copy of Sully's 
Psychology came into his hands his eyes were 
opened to the fact that perhaps his great fetish 
was not without faults. This doubt of Spencer's 
infallibility disturbed him greatly. About this 
time he met Professor George P. Brown, an able 
educator from Bloomington, Illinois, who advised 
him to write for light to William T. Harris, then 
of the Concord School of Philosophy — a step 
which marks the beginning of a peculiar friend- 
ship with the man who later became the United 
States Commissioner of Education. 

The School-Teacher's irrepressible energy and 
his eager capacity for progressive study brought 
to him, in Cresco, a problem with which he has 
ever since been forced, in a constantly broaden- 
ing way, to carry on a running fight. Finding 
that his teachers were content to drift along on 
the strength of the attainments which had 
brought them their certificates and their jobs, he 
determined to arouse in them, if possible, an 
aggressive interest in their work. To this end 
he formed a reading circle and also a Monday 
Club, to which those outside his teaching-force 

37 



THE MAKING OF AN 

were eligible. Page by page, John Stuart Mill's 
Political Economy and Spencer's First Principles 
and Social Statics were read and discussed, and 
these discussions became recognized as a town 
institution. Finally it was put into the contract 
with teachers that they must do a certain amount 
of progressive work, of study and research. 

In a moment of restrospection the realization 
came to the School-Teacher that he had been 
teaching for ten years and that he had covered 
a line of studious reading broader and deeper 
than the courses of most freshwater colleges. 
This determined him to try for a life certificate 
before the State board of examiners, which in- 
cluded the members of the Normal board. He 
passed well and thought little more of the inci- 
dent. But the examiners soon after suggested 
that the Normal board needed him; he became a 
candidate and was elected. Here he was brought 
into close association with the foremost edu- 
cators of the State and his horizon was imme- 
diately broadened. His reading, too, took a turn 
in the direction of pedagogy. 

Acquaintance with the geologist and botanist 
of the State University also added a fresh scope 
to his investigations ; he made a summer field trip 
with this friend, bought a compound microscope 

38 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

and became deeply engrossed in these studies, 
especially geology. 

Next to his re-election for another term of three 
years, the most significant happening of his Cresco 
experience was his first tilt with the school-book 
problem — but not his last! Returning from a 
series of county institutes he was met by a repre- 
sentative of the " School-Book Trust," as it was 
commonly called, who informed him that an ar- 
rangement had been made with the board to 
" clean up the old stuff " and give the school an 
outfit of new text-books in nearly all of the im- 
portant branches. 

" You'll have to guess again/' said the young 
principal. " I'm not going to use text-books of 
which I do not approve." 

Then the agent intimated that he guessed the 
board would settle that — in fact, had settled it — 
and the best thing the principal could do was to 
" be good." That was the signal for a school- 
book fight which made Cresco famous and the 
name of its school-principal known beyond the 
limits of the State. After the book-agent and the 
School-Teacher had made a personal canvass of 
the town, the former found his sharp practice 
overthrown and his " slate " smashed. But this 
was not the end of the fight — only the beginning. 
Soon he found himself called upon to advise the 

39 



THE MAKING OF AN 

County Board of School-Book Adoption, with the 
result that the "trust" arithmetic, readers and 
speller were thrown out. Educational men from 
outside the State came to him on the text-book 
question, and among them was a man from Au- 
rora, Illinois. 

Directly as a result of this, the School-Teacher 
received an invitation to become principal of the 
East Side Aurora High School at a salary of 
$1,700 — a position which had been filled by men 
who had become college professors and presi- 
dents and State educational officials. He took the 
position in August, 1891, and soon found himself 
facing a new phase of public-school politics: the 
Boss with a pull. 

The first morning, at the stroke of the study- 
bell, the delinquent son of the Boss began to 
make trouble. He had evidently been a disturb- 
ing element in the situation before and was 
astonished that he could not at once override the 
authority of this new principal. Two weeks later 
he was caught cheating in an examination, was 
suspended and left school. Then the Boss, whose 
position in the big car-shops gave him a grip 
upon a large body of voters, started out to " get " 
the School-Teacher. The " car-shops crowd " 
elected the president and three members of the 
Board of Education — but the Boss could not con- 

40 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

firm his charges of partiality and the fight re- 
sulted in an increase of salary for the principal. 
Three months later one of the School-Teacher's 
supporters on the board died and a special elec- 
tion was held to fill the vacancy. The car-shops 
candidate was elected and the board stood at a 
practical tie. Then came the spring election and 
a fight which passed into local history. The prin- 
cipal was completely vindicated, having buried 
the opposition and the Boss. 

With a prospect of clear sailing ahead, the 
principal finished his year— -and a pleasant year 
it was, because of his attendance upon the Uni- 
versity Extension lectures and the sessions of the 
Evolution Club in Chicago. At the latter gather- 
ing he met Professor Thurston, principal of the 
La Grange schools, and many kindred spirits. 
At La Grange, which is midway between Aurora 
and Chicago, was formed a philosophical club, 
which the School-Teacher invariably attended. 
After the close of the school year the young prin- 
cipal found himself in the most novel situation 
of suffering from an embarrassment of riches, be- 
ing simultaneously elected to the head of the 
schools in Duluth, Aurora and La Grange. 

Professor Thurston had been urging upon the 
School-Teacher the advantages of a university 
degree and had recommended him to fill the va- 

4i 



THE MAKING OF AN 

cancy at La Grange caused by his own resigna- 
tion. " Now," he wrote to the School-Teacher, 
"you can come here, take your university work 
and at the same time earn a good living and care 
for your family." Although the Duluth position 
paid a much higher salary, the La Grange offer 
was accepted. The following summer the School- 
Teacher matriculated in the University of Chi- 
cago, taking work with Dr. Dewey in Ethics and 
Psychology, and a course in English with Pro- 
fessor McClintock. In the following autumn Dr. 
Harper wrote him, inviting him to come in and 
consider the opportunity of working out a degree. 
He gave President Harper a list of his work, 
both public and private. 

For this showing he received credit — on pass- 
ing the examinations — for three years of college 
work. He had been going to college without 
knowing it while digging away in his attic den 
at Strawberry Point and in his Cresco retreat! 
But one year's work must be done in residence. 

In January he began a course at the Univer- 
sity to complete his work for a degree, carrying 
on the work in a class held after his school at 
the University from 4 to 6 o'clock. His work 
was on his old favorite, John Milton. During 
the Summer term of nine weeks he took a class 
in English, one in Pedagogy with Dr. Dewey, 

42 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

and two classes in French. In addition to this 
he took another course in French, passing an 
examination in it after about a week's work. He 
received three credits in French for his work 
during the nine weeks together with his work 
in the other studies. His work brought him not 
only his bachelor's degree but also a scholarship 
in English, Here was the harvest of his "mid- 
night oil" with increase of many fold. 

Then he took up advanced work and attempted 
to keep the same pace. But he had reached the 
breaking point and his mind refused to follow the 
recitations. The warning that he must relax and 
let the doctor's degree wait could not be ignored. 
He could no longer force himself, after a day's 
work as principal of a large school, to ride forty- 
six miles to the university for recitations, return- 
ing long after the children were abed, and pre- 
paring his work before they were up in the morn- 
ing. 

With the vacation came a call to go into the 
Ohio school-book fight as the representative of 
a Boston publishing house — at two hundred dol- 
lars a month and expenses. The award was to 
be made August 17, and he had about two months 
in which to work for the prize. He felt that 
his first month's work had made an impression, 
but his firm indicated failing faith by suggesting 

43 



THE MAKING OF AN 

that he get a horse and buggy and work the 
country districts. He refused, saying he would 
win the city " adoptions " or nothing. He stuck 
to the towns, and when the contest was over, a 
competitor summed up the situation by saying: 
" The greenhorn agent has made one of the big- 
gest killings on record in the State of Ohio." 
His competitors did not realize that he had taken 
a postgraduate course in hand-to-hand trading 
out in the tall grass of the Iowa prairies and that 
he knew the inside of school-book fighting from 
experience on the other side of the contest. But 
best of all, he returned to La Grange with rugged 
health and a keen appetite for study. 

Meantime, the scholarly E. Benjamin Andrews, 
who had resigned the presidency of Brown Uni- 
versity to become superintendent of the Chicago 
Public Schools, was learning the heart-breaking 
game of school politics. The principalship of 
the Normal School had become vacant through 
the resignation of Colonel Francis Wayland Par- 
ker, who enjoyed a national reputation as a 
teacher of teachers, and Doctor Andrews was 
struggling with the board to find a worthy suc- 
cessor to this pedagogical authority. One day 
a friend, an alumnus of Brown, called upon Doc- 
tor Andrews to talk over old times. The con- 
versation turned upon the Normal principalship. 

44 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

" There is a man out at La Grange who has the 
real stuff in him. He's up on philosophy and has 
a degree from the University of Chicago. I be- 
lieve that Dr. John Dewey would back him — 
and perhaps Doctor Harper, too. But of course, 
you've got to consider the politics of such a 
move. Don't overlook the fact that this man 
was the Democratic candidate for county super- 
intendent of schools and ran far ahead of his 
ticket. There are a lot of Democrats on your 
board and they're not going to knife him on that 
account. Think it over." 

" I've already named my man, and I shall have 
to stand by him," responded Doctor Andrews, 
" but I think he's already beaten. Have your man 
come and see me." 

The School-Teacher responded to the summons 
and was induced to enter the contest. He saw 
three members of the Board of Education, but 
his experience was such that he wrote a letter 
asking not to be considered further. Meantime, 
the political waters had been much troubled and 
a new situation had developed. The answer to 
his letter was : " You will make a mistake to 
withdraw as a candidate. Just stick and say 
nothing." He stuck — but on condition that he 
should not be expected to run after any more 
board members. The Normal committee had 

45 



THE MAKING OF AN 

seen Doctor John Dewey and learned from him 
the notable record made by the School-Teacher 
in the University, and particularly in philosophy 
and pedagogical studies. The forty-six-mile bi- 
cycle rides had come to a harvest, and in No- 
vember, '99, the School-Teacher was elected prin- 
cipal of the Cook County Normal School. 

Here was a sudden elevation to a position be- 
yond his largest dreams in the old Iowa days. 
He took the news home with a light heart. But 
when he placed the matter before the La Grange 
school trustees they resolutely refused to release 
him — and he would not leave without an honor- 
able release. A committee from the Chicago 
Board interceded — but to no avail. This was a 
dramatic moment for the young educator from 
the tall grass. He faced the fact that he stood 
to lose a position to which all of his ambitions 
called him. When he went back to Doctor An- 
drews he said: 

" It's no use. My people refuse to let me off, 
and I've got to stick. So you'll have to elect 
some other man in my place." 

Then came a turn of affairs which gave the 
School-Teacher greater satisfaction than his orig- 
inal election. It was a letter from Doctor An- 
drews, the president of the Board of Education 
and the chairman of the Normal committee, say- 

46 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

ing that they proposed to re-elect him at the end 
of his La Grange engagement and that he should, 
in the meantime, visit the Normal School as fre- 
quently as possible to familiarize himself with its 
workings. This he did, and he attended the meet- 
ing of the Chicago Board at which the report of 
the Normal committee, recommending his re- 
election as head of the Normal institution, was to 
be acted upon. 

But the fates had not yet tired dealing sur- 
prises to the young from Cresco. When the 
Board met to concur, Dr. Christopher, one of 
the Normal School committee, arose and nomi- 
nated him Superintendent of Schools to succeed 
Dr. Andrews, who had wearied of school politics 
and resigned. 

Then came the balloting — and finally the an- 
nouncement of his election to the hardest school- 
teaching job in America. 



47 



THE MAKING OF AN 



III. 

AN ATTEMPT TO SMOKE THE POLITICAL 
PESTS OUT OF THE PUBLIC- 
SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

Before he had scarcely caught his breath from 
the surprise of his election, the School-Teacher 
found himself assailed on every hand by the abid- 
ing pests of the public-school system of Chi- 
cago — the politicians. From the moment he first 
opened his desk until the Board of Education 
reconvened after the summer vacation, the hum 
of the political pull was perpetually in his ears. 

Never, since he had recovered his educational 
impulse in the grammar-room of the little school 
at Strawberry Point, had he thought of the 
School-Teacher's position as merely a job. He 
knew the plain and practical bent of his own 
mind, and knew that his nearest friend would not 
accuse him of being only an idealist; but it had 
not occurred to him that there were any great 
number of decent and self-respecting citizens in 
the Middle West who held the position of in- 
structing their own and their neighbors' children 
as a political bone to squabble for — a mere piece 

4 8 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

of political spoils, like an appointment as bridge- 
tender or deputy oil inspector. 

Whatever of idealism the School-Teacher had 
with regard to American citizenship and the pub- 
lic-school system received a severe jolt in those 
vacation days which he had dedicated to getting 
hold of the reins of the school administration 
and securing a near and practical view of the 
big problems with which he must deal in a re- 
sponsible way. Instead of finding his office fre- 
quented by teachers, principals, district superin- 
tendents and Board members eager to consult 
with him on measures for the interests of the 
school children, he awoke to the fact that fully 
one-half his time was being demanded by poli- 
ticians inside and outside the ranks of teachers, 
who came to ask for appointments, transfers and 
promotions and to impress him with the " back- 
ing " which they were able to bring. 

The school-teacher as a job-hunter, as a cog 
in the City Hall "machine," as a side partner 
with the district boss, the ward-heeler and the 
precinct captain was a new species to this edu- 
cator from the tall grass of the Iowa prairies. 
He was, for the moment, stunned by the force 
and volume of the current of political pressure 
which was turned upon him; but soon he began 
to pull himself together, and when the members 

49 



THE MAKING OF AN 

of the Board of Education returned for the first 
meeting prior to the opening of the schools he 
had digested this revelation of public-school poli- 
tics and was prepared to act. 

He realized that it is a far cry from the prin- 
cipalship of an eight-room school in a little prairie 
town to the administrative head of an educational 
system composed of 259 big schools, 5,600 teach- 
ers and 280,000 pupils. The task of grasping a 
situation of this magnitude with the determina- 
tion to establish a new order of things might 
have staggered a man of slighter physique, of 
weaker will and less energy ; but the bulldog an- 
tecedents of the School-Teacher and his long 
training in the School of Hard Knocks stirred 
him to grapple with the emergency without loss 
of a moment. And his opportunity came with 
the first gathering of the clans. 

At this time nominations for appointment, 
transfer and promotion in the teaching and super- 
vising force were made jointly by the superin- 
tendent of schools and the members of the dis- 
trict committee — each district having a com- 
mittee composed of two or three members of the 
Board of Education which did its work in secret. 

Just before the first meeting of a certain dis- 
trict committee its two members called upon the 
School-Teacher to arrange for the nomination of 

50 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

a list of principals and head assistants in their 
district. 

" I'm new to this situation and I must have a 
chance, gentlemen," replied the School-Teacher, 
" to talk this over with the superintendent of your 
district." 

The members of the district committee smiled 
tolerantly and gave an offhand assent to this sug- 
gestion. The district superintendent had been 
asked who were the best persons to fill the places 
in question and the list was in the desk of the 
superintendent of schools. But he was again con- 
sulted and his superior was satisfied that the 
recommendations were good ones. 

The afternoon before the session of the big 
school management committee, the two members 
of the district committee and the district super- 
intendent suddenly appeared before the School- 
Teacher and submitted a list of nominations al- 
most wholly different from the one already in 
possession of the head of the school system. 

" Are these your recommendations ? " the dis- 
trict superintendent was asked. 

" Yes, sir. You see " 

But his stammering explanation was inter- 
rupted by the members of the district committee, 
who pointed to the bottom of the list, and said : 

" There's his signature in black and white." 

5i 



THE MAKING OF AN 

At this moment a messenger appeared and 
summoned the School-Teacher before the school 
management committee. As he went into the 
room he slipped the recommendations just de- 
livered to him under the stack of papers which 
he carried in his hand. This, his first important 
committee session, seemed to drop easily into the 
commonplace until all the documents in his pile 
save the last had been disposed of; then very 
quietly he remarked : 

" Here is a list of recommendations signed by 
the district superintendent and by the district 
committeemen, but not by myself. I know noth- 
ing about them and can make no recommendation 
on them." 

Instantly the chairman of the school manage- 
ment committee reached for the list and put his 
" O. K." upon it, as upon all the other reports, at 
the same time declaring the session adjourned. 

"What's the meaning of this?" suddenly in- 
quired Chester M. Dawes, a keen lawyer and a 
son of the late United States Senator Dawes, of 
Massachusetts. 

Briefly the School-Teacher explained to the 
railroad lawyer the incident which had dictated 
his course regarding the last list of nominations. 

" If I had known the circumstances," said 

52 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

Mr. Dawes, " that recommendation would have 
been held up." 

When the School-Teacher found the district 
superintendent he asked: 

" What did you mean by giving me one set of 
nominations and the district committeemen an- 
other?" 

" They insisted upon their list," was the reply, 
" as they always do, and although their list was 
enough to make angels weep, the pressure they 
brought to bear made me feel that I must concur. 
But what can you do ? " 

" I can stand out and make a fight," answered 
the School-Teacher, " and that's just what I'm 
going to do, too." 

" Then I'll stand with you," responded the dis- 
trict superintendent, " and do all I can to 
straighten the thing cut." And he did. 

Then followed lively sessions with the district 
committeemen, the chairman of the school man- 
agement committee and Chester M. Dawes — ses- 
sions which made school history in Chicago be- 
yond the realization, at the time being, of those 
who were concerned in the fight. A truce was 
called by an agreement that the report in con- 
troversy was to be withheld from the full ses- 
sion of the Board of Education. 

After one meeting of the Board had passed 

53 



THE MAKING OF AN 

without action upon the matter, the represent- 
ative of a big city boss, who controlled and dic- 
tated conventions, called at the office of the su- 
perintendent of schools and "read the riot act" 
to the School-Teacher, informing him that the 
name of a niece of the Big Boss was on the list 
and that it " must go through." 

" I'll see the president of the Board about it," 
declared the emissary of the politician. 

He did — and the president sustained the super- 
intendent of schools. The war was on, and the 
man from the tall grass started in to smoke out 
of the school system the pest of the professional 
politicians. 

Just before the close of the next session of the 
Board of Education, the School-Teacher arose 
and made the request that the Board go into 
executive session for the purpose of listening to 
a statement which he wished to make. The presi- 
dent requested all outsiders and members of the 
press to leave the room, and for the first time in 
its history the Board was convened in secret ses- 
sion. The School-Teacher realized that he faced 
a crisis at the very beginning of his administra- 
tion. 

He related his experience with the case in 
hand, and he asked that a ruling be made on the 
method of formulating lists of nominees for ap- 

54 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

pointment, promotion and transfer which should 
not only guide the superintendent of schools, but 
should also be binding upon the members of the 
Board of Education. His talk opened the eyes of 
his hearers, and, after a sharp fight, a rule was 
adopted which left him free to make his recom- 
mendations direct to the big school management 
committee, where they should be heard and dis- 
cussed in open, before the public and the repre- 
sentatives of the press. 

This was a long step in the direction of free- 
ing the public schools of Chicago from the coils 
of the boa constrictor of political influence, and 
district committees have never since been con- 
sulted regarding nominations. 

At the same meeting Chester M. Dawes intro- 
duced the resolution which has since borne his 
name and will always entitle him to the grati- 
tude of those who have the real interest of the 
pupils of the Chicago public schools at heart. 
In essence this resolution made it mandatory up- 
on the superintendent of schools to report to the 
Board of Education the name of every person — 
whether a member of that Board, a teacher or an 
outsider — who in any manner sought to influence 
the nomination for appointment, transfer or pro- 
motion of any person to a position in the teach- 
ing or supervising force of the public schools. 

55 



THE MAKING OF AN 

This resolution was resented and resisted by 
a part of the Board, but a majority sustained it 
after a fight of about two months. Perhaps it 
was voted for by some members who did not fully 
realize the effectiveness of publicity as a pre- 
ventive against the pull evil. At one meeting 
fourteen of the twenty-one members of the Board 
were reported as having pulled for various nomi- 
nees, and their names were printed in the news- 
papers in connection with the transaction. The 
names of many " distinguished citizens " were also 
published, from time to time, in the " pull list," 
and the people of Chicago began to arouse them- 
selves to the fact that the public schools were be- 
ing used, and had long been used, as a rich pre- 
serve for pot-hunting politicians and profession- 
al job-seekers. This hunting-ground was espe- 
cially tempting to those politicians and citizens 
who had women relatives and friends whom they 
wished to " place " on the public pay-roll. 

Although this smudge of publicity helped to 
drive back the political pests, the School-Teacher 
realized that he had won only the first fight in 
the long battle against politics in the public 
schools and that the pressure of influence was 
always there and ready, on the instant, to take 
advantage of the least non-resistance, the slight- 
est relaxation, on his part. He realized, too, that 

56 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

he must keep pushing ahead in his campaign, or 
he would lose the ground he had already gained. 
Not only this, but he must fortify and protect 
each position gained so that it would be fairly 
safe from future assault from the political con- 
tingent. In this effort he was sustained by a 
majority of the Board and by the mayor. 

There were bosses and ward-heelers obtuse 
enough to ask why he was so afraid of " a little 
politics " — had not kissing always gone by favor, 
and should not a man of influence take care of 
his friends? Was there anything sacred about a 
job in the public schools that it must be filled by 
divine inspiration? To these questions the 
School-Teacher laid down the law that public 
schools exist for one purpose alone — THE BEST 
GOOD OF PUPILS; that all other considera- 
tions were secondary and insignificant, and that 
political influence in appointments was bad for 
the pupils because it did not PROVIDE the best 
teachers, KEEP the best teachers, PROMOTE 
the best teachers, or get the best work out of the 
entire teaching and supervising force. In a cer- 
tain school, for example, one teacher — and a 
woman, at that — openly defied the principal and 
challenged him to report her to the superintend- 
ent, adding, significantly, that, she could pull 
more votes in the Board of Education than he 

57 



THE MAKING OF AN 

could. Then, too, the School-Teacher fought pol- 
itics in school matters not only because it brought 
poor teaching and supervising timber into serv- 
ice and destroyed discipline, but also because it 
forced the teachers to think more of cultivating 
their pulls than their pupils, and it continually 
occupied the time and energy of the school ex- 
ecutives which the good of the children demand- 
ed should be spent in dealing with practical edu- 
cational problems. 

Never since he first laid down this platform 
has the School-Teacher deviated from its simple 
lines. The politicians and their followers had 
long been accustomed to think that the public 
schools EXISTED FOR THE TEACHERS. 
The School-Teacher's declaration that they exist- 
ed solely for the pupils seemed a strange doctrine 
« — a bold and blatant heresy which marked the au- 
thor as a " reform crank." But the pupils sat up 
and took notice. 

The next advance movement of the School- 
Teacher was for the securing of a permanent and 
well-fortified merit system which should make 
promotion automatic on the basis of efficiency in 
the school-room and of progressive scholarship. 
Of course this movement was beset by political 
snags, but the people had experienced an 
awakening with regard to their schools, and at 

58 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

last the politicians on the Board were com- 
pelled to yield to the public sentiment. After 
more than a year of steady work for his 
measure, the School-Teacher marked another 
mile-post in his career by securing the adoption 
of a merit system which placed the appointment 
and transfer of all elementary teachers, kinder- 
gartners and teachers in positions not involving 
special qualifications on the basis of scholarship 
and efficiency in the school-room. Appointments 
and transfers were made, and have ever since 
been made, from this merit-list. So far as the 
list of those eligible for appointment is concerned, 
the merit-list is an open book and is kept on the 
public counter in the office of the superintendent 
of schools, where all comers may freely examine 
the roll of eligibles and note the relative standing 
of the applicants for appointment. 

And how is this merit-list filled? Briefly, thus : 
Old teachers who have dropped out of the service 
and desire reinstatement are the only ones put 
on this list without " cadet " or probationary 
service; they are marked according to their old 
record. Experienced teachers from outside the 
city are admitted to the eligible list after an ex- 
amination for scholarship and a satisfactory pro- 
bationary service of four months as "supplies/ 5 
their number of rank being fixed by a combination 

59 



THE MAKING OF AN 

of their scholarship and their efficiency marks. 
The third class — and by far the most numerous 
one — is that of graduates from the Chicago Nor- 
mal School, which is maintained expressly as a 
feeder and an inspiration for the teaching force of 
the Chicago public schools. Although these 
cadets are required to do a liberal amount of 
actual supply-work in the class-rooms of the pub- 
lic practice schools, they are also marked for 
efficiency by the principals under whom they 
teach while serving a four months' probation. 
These marks, together with their scholarship 
marks in the Normal School, determine their 
standing on the merit-list, which is revised twice 
a year. All supply-teachers are assigned, auto- 
matically, from the merit-list, and no teacher is 
regularly employed in an elementary position 
who has not been tried by this probationary 
process. 

An important evolution from this merit scheme 
was worked out by the School-Teacher and 
adopted by the Board of Education. It marked 
another significant step toward more complete 
protection from political interference. This is 
called the salary-grouping system. It classifies 
all elementary and high-school teachers and prin- 
cipals into groups, and provides that promotions 
from group to group must be based, first, upon 

60 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

efficiency of service in the school-room, as marked 
by the supervising force, including principals 
and district superintendents; second, on the evi- 
dence of their progressive scholarship shown by 
examinations, by work done in universities, col- 
leges, certain recognized correspondence schools, 
or by study under direction of the Chicago Nor- 
mal School. Upon a combination of their effi- 
ciency marks and their proofs of progressive 
scholarship depends their progress from one 
salary-group to another. 

The opponents of this plan contended that 
length of service should be the determining factor 
in salary increase, but the School-Teacher said: 
" To permit teachers to advance from the mini- 
mum salary paid to the highest limit, without let, 
hindrance or interruption — -save that they con- 
tinue efficient enough to avoid dismissal — abso- 
lutely ignores the real purpose for which the 
school exists — the welfare of the children in the 
schools — and suggests the necessary effort to get 
into the system and then letting the clock do the 
rest." He finally scored a victory over the clock- 
watchers and secured a rule requiring progressive 
scholarship. This forced the teacher who secured 
salary promotion beyond a certain point to keep 
alive. 

In detail the scheme is this: A teacher is re- 

61 



THE MAKING OF AN 

garded as permanent after three years of satis- 
factory service ; up to the end of the seventh year 
of service the clock is allowed to do the work 
and the salaries are automatically advanced prac- 
tically fifty dollars a year. Then teachers must 
show cause why they should be passed into the 
next group — a jump which calls for a consider- 
able salary-advance. The teacher is subjected to 
a test on these points : " Is she a good teacher? 
Has she kept up her educational processes and 
methods? Has she kept up her interest in some 
branch of study outside the limit of her regular 
professional duties?" Her record for efficiency in 
the school-room and her proof of study at the 
Normal School or other recognized college or 
school, give the answer upon which depends her 
advancement into the next salary-group. If the 
answer is satisfactory, the clock works again for 
three years — each year bringing an increase of 
salary until the maximum of one thousand dol- 
lars, the top salary of the elementary teacher, is 
reached. 

One of the greatest elements in making pro- 
gressive scholarship an easy matter for Chicago 
teachers is the Normal Extension movement, the 
credit for which rests, beyond question, with the 
School-Teacher. It is his plan and its success 
is one of his greatest achievements. 

62 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

In a report to the Board, in 1903, he said : 
" The Normal School extension work began in 
October, 1902. This work was designed to fur- 
nish teachers an opportunity to carry on regular 
academic and professional work under the direc- 
tion of instructors furnished at the expense of 
the Board of Education, and at times and places 
most convenient for the teacher. * * * 

" It would be unwise to narrow the line of in- 
struction given in the course in such a way as 
to aim at preparation for the examinations only. 
The extension work should aim higher, and 
should undertake the all-important task of re- 
inspiring the old teachers with interest and en- 
thusiasm for their work, and equip them with 
the most modern ideas as to the ways of doing 
it. * * * It is generally known that teachers 
under ordinary conditions reach the maximum 
limit of their efficiency within five years after 
they begin to teach. If they grow after this it 
will be the result not so much of experience in 
the school-room as of experience in the school- 
room coupled with persistent study along the 
lines of academic or professional work. * * * 
It is almost certain that more than one-half of 
all the teachers employed by the Board of Educa- 
tion are engaged in some sort of active systematic 
work looking toward self-improvement. The 

63 



THE MAKING OF AN 

city of Chicago has reason to feel sure that its 
teachers are awake, and that they are growing." 

Since that time the proportion of teachers who 
have joined the " Keep Alive Club " — the Normal 
Extension movement — has fully held its own and 
perhaps increased. This summer the phenomenal 
number of 731 teachers have asked for the Nor- 
mal Extension course in August. 

The School-Teacher's influence in the Normal 
School itself has been strongly felt. He urged 
that the regular course be extended in length 
from one year to two years, and this was done 
and departments for the training of kindergarten 
teachers and teachers of domestic science have 
been added. To bring the Normal School in- 
structors into closer contact with the practical 
work of actual teaching in the big class-rooms, 
as contrasted with the small " experimental " 
classes of Normal School, " the practice school " 
heads of departments have been required to reg- 
ularly visit the public school-rooms and report 
upon the conditions encountered there. This con- 
tact with teaching conditions " in the large " has 
reached not only the Normal School instructors 
and students, but also the students of the Nor- 
mal Extension courses. 

Reorganization of the system of school admin- 
istration also imposed a heavy burden upon the 

64 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

shoulders of the School-Teacher and opened an- 
other means of placing further obstacles in the 
way of the school politician. First, the number 
of district superintendents was reduced from 
fourteen to six, and later to four. In the old days 
each district superintendent was practically su- 
preme in his district. Now the assignment of 
teachers, the making of transfers, and all kindred 
matters are handled by these superintendents sit- 
ting as a board, thus working together along the 
line of a common policy to a common end. These 
superintendents practically constitute a Board of 
Equalization on educational matters, not only as 
to the marking of teachers and principals for 
efficiency and the transfer and dismissal of teach- 
ers, but also on methods of teaching, matters of 
discipline, the equitable distribution of school 
equipment and supplies, the locating and build- 
ing of new school-houses, the placing of kinder- 
garten, manual training and domestic science cen- 
ters and of playgrounds. All these matters were 
once subject to the influence of local politicians, 
but are now handled with reference to the needs 
of the children and the good of the whole school 
system, instead of being at the mercy of politi- 
cians and citizens seeking to serve their imme- 
diate ends. 



65 



THE MAKING OF AN 



IV. 

THE FEDERATION FIGHT. 

No problem with which the School-Teacher has 
had to deal can be considered as more important 
than that of the Teachers' Federation, because, 
stripped of all disguises, the real animus of this 
secret organization is to run the public schools 
for the teachers instead of for the pupils. But 
this statement is altogether too generous; it 
should be qualified by the clause : for the teachers 
who belong to the Federation. Again, the Fed- 
eration fight is significant to every educator, and 
every public-school pupil in America because the 
organization is being systematically extended to 
towns and cities throughout the entire country. 
And, finally, it is most important, because it is 
the latest model and the highest type of the polit- 
ical machine especially adapted to school politics. 
It is warranted to show efficiency in the tightest 
and most prohibitive situations where the old- 
style political machine is powerless and obsolete. 

The present power of the Teachers' Federation 
is almost wholly due to the fact that, under the 
leadership of two remarkable women, Miss Mar- 

66 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

garet Haley and Miss Catherine Goggin, for- 
merly school-teachers, it went out after certain 
tax-dodging public service corporations in Chi- 
cago, and, after an extended and sensational 
fight, compelled them to disgorge considerably 
more than $200,000 in evaded tax money. Of 
this the school fund of the city received, on a de- 
cision by Judge Edward F. Dunne, now mayor of 
Chicago, $126,673.79. This was apportioned, by 
the Board of Education, between the educational 
and the building funds. As the Board indicated a 
disposition to use this sum for current expenses, 
instead of the payment of certain claims for back 
salaries, the Federation, in the name of Miss 
Catherine Goggin and 1,643 others, mainly Federa- 
tionists, sued the Board for a total of $218,638=15. 
Judge Dunne's decision on this claim released to 
the litigating teachers the sum of $73,980. In the 
words of the report of the president of the Board : 
" This decision is based on the theory that when 
the Board of Education elected teachers in June, 
1899, said teachers so elected were entitled to the 
salary then in force for the next ensuing school 
year, and not simply to the end of the calendar 
year, as was the custom of the Board for years; 
and further, on the fact that the city council at 
its meeting on April 4, 1900, in connection with 
the passing of an ordinance entitled, 'An Ordi- 

67 



THE MAKING OF AN 

nance Making Appropriation for Corporate, 
Schools and Public Library Purposes, for the 
fiscal year from January i, 1900, to December 31, 
1900/ adopted a resolution in connection with the 
said ordinance which reads as follows : * A suffi- 
cient amount of this sum appropriated shall be 
expended in restoring salaries of experienced 
school-teachers for 1900/ " 

The new Board of Education passed a resolu- 
tion instructing counsel for the Board — who had 
already rendered an opinion " that the finding of 
Judge Dunne's decision in this case is clearly er- 
roneous as to the $73,980 and that it will undoubt- 
edly be reversed on appeal " — to withdraw the 
appeal and disburse the money to the litigating 
teachers. This move was but recently carried 
through and the money has lately been paid to the 
litigants. 

The Teachers' Federation has been doing busi- 
ness ever since its attack upon the corporate tax 
dodgers on the capital of its victory in that cam- 
paign, and its success in the "back salary" fight 
has been the backbone of its standing with the 
teachers. Upon this accomplishment it has syste- 
matically set out to subjugate the school manage- 
ment to its purposes and its control. It has syste- 
matically assailed the Board of Education and the 
superintendent of schools as tools of the " pluto- 

68 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

crats " and " tax-doging corporations " ; it has 
assailed the plan basing teachers' salaries on ef- 
ficiency and progressive scholarship; it has de- 
manded a schedule of salaries based on length 
of service only; it has proposed to take the initia- 
tive in the selection of text-books out of the 
hands of the superintendent of schools and his 
advisers and throw it into the hands of the grade 
teachers ; it has demanded the " democratization " 
of the schools by the creation of councils of teach- 
ers having authority to deal with important ad- 
ministrative and pedagogical questions as an ad- 
visory body; it has repeatedly sent its lobby to 
Springfield to oppose legislation for the better or- 
ganization of the school system, including a bill 
presented by the Board of Education, after its 
adoption by the unanimous vote of the Board; 
it has put up a cry against the " autocratic power 
of the school principals," and it has consistently 
labored for the unionizing of the public schools. 
The Teachers' Federation is a secret organiza- 
tion, so far as its rank and file, its methods and 
purposes are concerned. In every school where 
it has one or more members it has a correspond- 
ent whose duty it is secretly and regularly to in- 
form the officials of the Federation on all matters 
believed to be of interest to them. The Chicago 
Tribune recently contained a letter from the only 

69 



THE MAKING OF AN 

male teacher in the school where he is employed 
stating that the correspondent of the Federation 
in the school wields more power than the prin- 
cipal. The " drag " of the Federation is such 
that in all matters of discipline involving teachers 
belonging to it, the power of the Federation 
quickly makes itself felt. It is affiliated in Chi- 
cago with the Federation of Labor. 

These facts regarding the Teachers' Federation 
are familiar to the citizens of Chicago ; they have 
been frequently commented on in the newspapers 
and in educational journals — perhaps nowhere 
more intelligently than in the Educational Re- 
view, of November, 1905, in an article written by 
David Swing Ricker, the regular representative 
of the Chicago Tribune at the meetings of the 
Board of Education. 

One of the latest phases of Federation activity 
is a plan to abolish the efficiency and progressive 
scholarship test in the matter of promotions and 
to raise the salaries of thousands of teachers who 
have declined to stand the existing promotional 
tests. On this score the Chicago Chronicle, of 
July 21, 1906, makes this terse editorial com- 
ment: 

" Everything the school-teachers do is for the 
purpose of getting more money. No sooner had 
the proceeds of the lawsuit against the State 

70 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

Board of Equalization been distributed among 
them than they started an agitation for increased 
pay. They want a new schedule which will give 
them about ioo per cent more salary than they 
get at present. 

" This is the immediate and premeditated effect 
of Mayor Dunne's appointment, stuffing the Board 
of Education with the socialistic partisans of the 
Teachers' Federation. Nobody in this city be- 
grudges an able and faithful school-teacher a 
liberal salary, but the Chicago teachers are al- 
ready better paid than the teachers anywhere else 
in this country, and as for those teachers who be- 
long to the Teachers' Federation they ought to 
be kicked out of the schools altogether." 

The Chicago Record-Herald has an editorial, 
of the same date, remarking: 

" M am opposed to the promotional examina- 
tion,' said President Ritter of the School Board. 
' I feel certain the teachers neglect the children 
in order to prepare for the promotional tests. 
Frankly, I do not know of any plan I will indorse 
as a substitute, but I am convinced the present 
system should be materially modified — if not 
eliminated altogether.' 

"This interview with its confession of igno- 
rance indicates a purely destructive policy. But it 
is no more destructive than the policy that was 

7i 



THE MAKING OF AN 

outlined in a report of a substitute that was print- 
ed at the same time. Under the substitute efficient 
teachers would advance with clock regularity, 
and efficient teachers would be all teachers 
against whom no charge of inefficiency or unfit- 
ness had been proved. 

" That, of course, means nothing but promotion 
by seniority. Instead of a compulsory test for 
advancement applicable to all alike, there is a 
mere chance of haphazard accusations which no 
one is likely to make except for personal reasons. 

" So the president and the substitute lead us to 
nothing at all. It is to be hoped that these are 
not true signs of what the dispensation under 
the new Board is to be. If they are, the progress 
of the Chicago schools will be backward." 

To indicate further the attitude of the public 
press in Chicago regarding the destructive policy 
of the reorganized Board of Education, which has 
now become much more clearly defined than 
when these editorials were written, let two other 
newspapers speak for themselves. . 

Here is a paragraph from an editorial in the 
Chicago Tribune: 

" It is said also that the program contemplates 
the * democratizing ' of the management of 
school affairs by giving the teachers more power, 
and by abolishing regulations which are offensive 

72 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

to some of the teachers because exacting of them 
a high standard of efficiency. If such a program 
were to be carried out, the schools would be de- 
moralized and the children would suffer. The 
teachers are not hired to give instruction to the 
trustees as to their duties, but to teach the chil- 
dren that are put in their care. The management 
of the schools is placed by the law in the hands 
of trustees and not of some Federated em- 
ployees." 

In its editorial utterances the Chicago Daily 
News is noted for its mildness, its ultra-con- 
servatism. But the following editorial, in its 
issue of July n, has no uncertain sound: 

" The mayor apparently has aimed to deliver up 
the city's great system of schools to persons ad- 
vocating the principles put forward by the lead- 
ing spirits of the Teachers' Federation. He has 
attempted to make of the school system a labora- 
tory for the testing of the Federation's half-baked 
ideas. He has subjected the city to the danger 
of a general upsetting of responsible school man- 
agement and the substitution of more or less im- 
possible makeshifts. Mayor Dunne, the chief ad- 
ministrator of the affairs of a community of two 
million souls, has permitted himself to be a cat's- 
paw of a few inflamed enemies of the best system 
of school administration Chicago has ever had. 

73 



THE MAKING OF AN 

Having been weak enough to let down the bars 
for them, he may be expected to shuffle and 
dodge responsibility if his appointees get to Tun- 
ing amuck in the interests of chaos and the 
Teachers' Federation. His dodging will not help 
him. He alone is responsible for the composition 
of the new school board." 

Referring to the scheme introduced by Dr. Cor- 
nelia De Bey to " democratize " the public 
schools, the Chicago Chronicle has this to say : 

" Dr. De Bey, though one of the trustees her- 
self, is on the Board, like some others, apparently 
for the sole purpose of subverting its author- 
ity. * * * As Trustee Dudley observes, this 
contemplates a revolution. * * * The Board 
has long since abdicated in favor of its employees. 
No one can understand clearly what Dr. De Bey's 
proposed system means, as it is almost unthink- 
able in its folly, and therein lies the impudence 
of it. * * * It is a brazen and insolent chal- 
lenge to the Board to hand over its authority to 
the teachers and make the trustees the employees 
of the teachers instead of the teachers being the 
employes of the trustees. This is equivalent to 
proposing that the public schools, on which the 
city is spending twelve million dollars a year, 
shall be completely disrupted and the public- 
school system abandoned. It needs no perspi- 

74 



AMERICAN SCHOOL-TEACHER 

cacity to see that the whole infamous plot ema- 
nates from the Teachers' Federation and Mar- 
garet Haley and the socialistic influences with 
which they are connected." 

It is not to be taken for granted, however, that 
all the appointees of Mayor Dunne who are 
classed as " radicals " will lend themselves to the 
revolutionary program and purposes of the 
Teachers' Federation leaders; the chiefs of this 
educational Tammany are bound to be disap- 
pointed in some of the late recruits, for some of 
them are too big, too conscientious and too fair- 
minded deliberately to take part in the sacking 
of the educational structure which the School- 
Teacher and his supporters have erected and are 
defending. 

But if they do not have ears to hear the outcry 
of the people and the press they can easily wreck 
the educational structure, to the building of which 
the School-Teacher has devoted six years of tire- 
less work and a rare genius for educational ad- 
ministration, 



75 



HOV !4 im 



